Our focus is enterprise API management, and we’ve been very successful at helping major companies extend their influence and business activities to millions of users. While enterprise is where we make our living, the development and usage of APIs – any APIs – is something we find wildly exciting (and that’s not said facetiously – you should hear us geek out in our product planning meetings).

We realize that anyone who is creating an API is doing it because they’ve discovered some business value in their core product or service, and by enabling others to leverage it, they will gain more users and benefit from more transactions. So whether your company sells mortgages, soda, or shoe laces, there’s an imperative need to add to your foundation and create an exponential number of channels – fastest way to do that, we all know, is through APIs.

The people who have figured this out are our kindred spirits and it’s interesting to find out what they’re creating, irrespective of whether the intended audience is for large enterprises or small consumer start-ups. Some APIs look like they’re applicable to only about two companies on the entire planet. Maybe that’s the case, but for those two companies, it will be a huge boon. So we celebrate anyone who’s taking it upon themselves to figure out processes, code and ultimately piece together a solution through an API.

ProgrammableWeb, a good friend of ours, is the prime destination for all these API-heads who care about the process and the outcome. It is, in their own words, a Web site that “keeps you up to date with APIs, mashups and the Web as platform”; not just for enterprise developers, nor just developers of consumer-based APIs. Rather, it’s the go-to destination for news and updates about EVERYTHING API – not just trends or analysis (of which they have excellent reporting), but actual news about actual APIs.

One of our favorite things at SOA Software is ProgrammableWeb’s API Directory. For API nerds like us, it’s like being an 8 year-old with the keys to the candy shop. You get to peer into APIs on almost any given topic and get smarter about what’s available and usable for you. To an API management solution provider like us, it provides us with insight into the API market, and it feels like it’s practically real-time. As I write this, there are 7,639 APIs available in the directory, and they cover a huge range of topics. A sampling of APIs in their directory to whet your appetite:

For all of these APIs (and 7,635 others – and growing every day), you can track the API, get specs, and access it. Functionally, it’s probably the most comprehensive directory, and it’ll help you solve your problems if you’re in need of an API. For others, it’s maybe the best way to get the pulse on what’s happening with API developers – what is interesting, what’s important, what’s getting the most attention. It’s like watching the a live overview of the API marketplace, and needless to say, we’re hooked.